To Know The Dark

To Know The Dark
by Wendell Berry

To go in the dark with a light is to know the light.
To know the dark, go dark. Go without sight,
and find that the dark, too, blooms and sings,
and is traveled by dark feet and dark wings.



Addendum: I include this poem because nowhere else have I found so eloquent and complete a description of the world without light. Vision is simply one means of knowing, and the recognition of life that not only exists without it but thrives in its absence reminds us that seeing is a construct, and it can be considered from a place outside of itself. The implications this has for the visual arts are profound, for it indicates that work that relies on visual operations may have foundations rooted in non-visual truths. I have written more about this more in Modernism and Esotericism.